Ex-EastEnders actor Katie Jarvis shouted ‘black lives don’t matter’ in row outside Essex chip shop

Actress, who played Hayley Slater on soap, changed pleas to guilty on what would have been first day of trial following incident in Southend-on-Sea

Former Eastenders actress Katie Jarvis has admitted racially aggravated harassment and common assault following an incident in Essex (BBC)

A former EastEnders actress who shouted “black lives don’t matter” during a row outside a chip shop in Essex has been sentenced.

Katie Jarvis, who played Hayley Slater in the BBC soap from 2018 to 2019, got into a dispute with a group of women in Southend-on-Sea at about 7.30pm on July 31 2020.

Cyrus Shroff, prosecuting, said tensions flared after someone tried to lift an empty chair from a table with four seats where Michelle Antonio, who is black, was sitting with two others of her group of four people.

He told Basildon Crown Court Ms Antonio had said the chair was being used, then saw the 30-year-old defendant and told her she could not take the seat as it was needed by a fourth person in her party.

He said differing accounts have been provided over what happened next, with Jarvis claiming Ms Antonio was “aggressive”, which Ms Antonio denies.

Mr Shroff said Jarvis walked off, shouting “black lives don’t matter anyway”, “black c****” and “I’m a celebrity”.

Katie Jarvis played Hayley Slater on BBC soap EastEnders from 2018 to 2019 (PA)

He said it “appears a fight broke out between the parties”.

Mr Shroff said that at about 9.15pm that same day bouncer Toby Groom denied Jarvis entry to the Hope Hotel, and when she returned an hour later Mr Groom again asked her to leave.

“She started shouting abuse again towards him”, Mr Shroff said. “She then spat towards him.

“It’s right to say there’s no suggestion it connected to him.

“He notified the police and soon after that at about 11pm officers arrested Ms Jarvis.”

He said that Jarvis, of Rainham, east London, told officers “she was racially wrong and she was drunk”.

Jarvis admitted on Tuesday to racially aggravated harassment and common assault, on what was due to be the first day of her trial.

She was sentenced to a two-year community order with 200 hours unpaid work and a requirement to complete 60 days of specified activities at the same court on Wednesday

Jarvis won a British Independent Film award for her role in award-winning 2009 film Fish Tank

Jarvis tearfully told the judge “thank you” after she had been sentenced.

The actress had also been charged with two counts of assault by beating, which she denied.

The judge instructed that one of these counts lie on the file, with a not guilty verdict recorded in respect of the second.

The actor made her EastEnders debut in 2009 after being cast in the lead role of rebellious teen Mia in the critically acclaimed film Fish Tank.

Jarvis’s portrayal of the role won her a British Independent Film award. The film was also in the running for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in the year it came out.

In 2019, the mother-of-two said she would be taking a “step back from acting”.

Several celebrities rallied in support of Jarvis after reports emerged she was working as a security guard in a shop after leaving EastEnders.

In an interview with Victoria Derbyshire in October that year, Jarvis said she had felt “degraded”, “really embarrassed” and “quite ashamed” by coverage in tabloid newspapers, which were accused of shaming her over her job.

Additional reporting by Press Association